PNC Financial Services Group Inc., of Pittsburgh, officially entered the Atlanta market over the weekend after closing a deal to acquire Flagstar Bancorp Inc.'s 27 branches there.

First Niagara's chief knows how to party, photos show. Lighter moment is part of serious effort at breaking the ice with new employees of a rapidly growing company, officials of the Buffalo bank say.

ING Group NV Monday announced plans to swap EUR5.8 billion ($7.8 billion) in subordinated debt for senior loans and cash, becoming the latest in a string of European banks to exchange their own debt at discounted values and use the gains to strengthen capital.

Republic Bancorp in Louisville, Ky., announced on Friday that it would soon stop making refund-anticipation loans as part of a settlement with the FDIC. Now it needs to find revenue to replace the $24.5 million the business has made this year.

The Buffalo company is scheduled to close on $1.1 billion of offerings over three days next week to pay for its increasingly problematic deal to buy 195 HSBC branches.

Keefe, Bruyette & Woods is advising investors to steer clear of most big banks' stocks in 2012 and invest instead in life insurers, credit card companies and smaller-cap regional banks.

Vengroff, Williams & Associates, one of the world's largest commercial collection agencies, has sold one of its "order-to-cash" divisions to Paris-based Capgemini, a global IT services and outsourcing company.

Looking to bulk up in affluent Orange County, California United Bank in Encino announced Friday that it is buying the $450 million-asset Premier Commercial Bancorp in Anaheim for $38.1 million in stock.

Prosperity Bancshares Inc. in Houston has struck its second deal in three months, announcing Friday that it is buying East Texas Financial Services Inc. in Tyler in all-stock deal.

The management of the newly formed BBCN Bancorp believe delayed approvals helped Nara Bancorp and Center Financial better prepare for their merger.

U.S. Bancorp and Fifth Third are eyeing small deals that would make them bigger players in markets they are already in, executives say. It sounds like a good idea for them and others, but will banks stick to it?

The Federal Reserve Board said Thursday that it had approved Brookline Bancorp Inc.'s acquisition of Bancorp Rhode Island Inc. in Providence, R.I.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. said Thursday the bank has repurchased $8 billion of common stock and warrants as of Sept. 30.

First Niagara's plan to pay for nearly 200 HSBC branches has diminished the deal's promise, put new burdens on the bank and its investors and lowered CEO John Koelmel's profile on Wall Street.

After several years on the sidelines, the Cincinnati regional looks to acquisitions to "deepen density."

Three state banking commissioners — Mark Kaufman of Maryland, James Cooper of Indiana and John Ducrest of Louisiana — said Wednesday that heightened regulatory, economic and policy concerns are deterring worthy state-chartered banks from winning big investors.

BofI Holding

Equity Bank in Andover, Kan., and University National Bank in Lawrence, Kan., have terminated their deal to merge.

BMO Financial Group played up the promise of its acquisition of Marshall & Ilsley Corp., but an uptick in nonperforming assets in the U.S. raised some eyebrows.

Bank of America Corp. urged its shareholders not to submit shares to an unsolicited tender offer from virtually unknown investment group IPIC Group Ltd., even though the offer is at a premium to recent market prices.